Just thought I'd open a thread for idle speculation on the upcoming tablets. It seems as though the biggest complaint I see in most of the other threads is that speculation/arguments has taken them off-topic. So here is a thread for precisely that.

It seems to me that there are 3 types of development:

1) Closed: Little/No information released. Speculation is mainly fictional, no facts to be based on. Obviously the favorite method of development, works well.

2) Open: All/Most information is available. Speculation can be easily dealt with, either by referencing available information or by releasing necessary information.

3) Semi-open: Current approach with the tablets.

I think that Nokia was unprepared for the amount of speculation surrounding the new tablets. Obviously, Nokia wants community involvement with the tablets. Otherwise, they would no be releasing alpha/beta sdk and as much information as they already have. They also wouldn't be sponsoring the forums in the future.

However, it seems that Nokia had hoped that as information/sdk was released, most of the feedback would be positive. In reality, it appears that there is a significant amount of less that positive feedback/concerns. At this point, Nokia doesn't seem to have a process in place to address these concerns. *Not that they have to address any of them at all, it is their choice.*

This has lead to frustration for the community regarding lack of / incomplete / unclear / vague / scattered (blogs, mailing lists, irc, roadmaps, etc) information and lack of feedback on feedback. It has also lead to frustration (I assume) on the part of the good folks from Nokia who are also part of the community, but unable to comment on many concerns.

Hopefully, we can all learn from this experience and in the future create a better experience for all concerned.

Any way here is a thread for all that idle speculation that would otherwise take other threads off-topic

The only interesting thing to me about speculating is the why. And my opinion is that every reason Nokia has given or will give for the following decisions has been or will be bullsh*t. And by bullsh*t I mean that Nokia continues to sacrifice a good computing experience for a trendy one.

• Removal of dpad from outside case
• Removal of stylus and stylus holder from product
• Removal of stylus keyboard from application framework
• Eventual removal of resistive touch screen

I didn't add "built-in stand" to this list because I'm giving Nokia the benefit of the doubt that new products will by similar to the N97 where the keyboard doubles as the stand. But in time, that will go too.

There's a regular kickstand on the next unit, mce has dbus definitions for "on stand".

Anyway, really, I still think the reasonable thing to do is to reserve your final judgement until you get to use the real product.

Of course, speculation as to why is only possible when we're 100% sure of what. Which is after an announcement.

At least two of these are speculation flying in the face of very strong hints from qgil (i.e. the stylus ain't going anywhere (yet?), and it still has several use cases)

Hmm, first time I've heard that speculation.

@Texrat

After 5700 posts my most memorable is when you, a then Nokia employee, said they need to have refreshes of both the n800 and n810. Man would I like to have a refined OMAP3 n800.

I'm speculating that there will be no physical pencil-like stylus and stylus holder in, on or around the product. Has qgil said otherwise? A guitar pick dangling from a string doesn't count.

I'll comment on the stand later.

Please reread the thread title. This is speculation. My why speculation is based on actual product and forum comments from Nokia employees. I then twist them accordingly. The "no why before what" comment made no sense to me.

The definition in the code doesn't say anything about a "regular kickstand". The "on stand" position could equally well be a desk stand like the 5800:



Regards,
Roger

It's interesting that the Nokia 5800 comes with a guitar pick dangling from a string, and a regular stylus. You can use either, both or neither. Maybe the idea of a stylus isn't completely dead at Nokia.

Regards,
Roger

Thanks for the picture; I'll let it speak for me.

I believe the why and the what are both valid at this point. For instance:

It appears that there may be a video out option, what type will it be (connector, vga, tv, hdmi, etc). There is speculation as to what type of form factor will be used (slider, dual slider, etc).

It has been clearly stated that the on screen stylus keyboard has been dropped, and we are left to speculate as to why and what may become of the actual stylus as a result.

So there is room for both types of speculation.